When using heatmaps to gauge interest levels for Google Local Carousel results, search marketer Matthew Hunt discovered that 48 percent of searchers surveyed clicked the Carousel results, while only 14.5 percent clicked on the map. Using the search term ‘Chicago Restaurants,’ Hunt asked 83 searchers to click on the area of the Google search results [...]

There appears to be an update underway, one that will be rolling out over a “multi-week” timeframe according to Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts. The update was announced by Matt on Twitter in response to a question about why some of the search results look spammy. Matt replied saying, “Yup we saw that. [...]

Today’s Google homepage is dedicated to Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi, the leader of Catalan Modernism. Born in 1852, Gaudi’s hometown in Catalonia, Spain is rumored to be Reus or Riudoms. An artist of many trades, including ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging and carpentry, Gaudi’s work was largely influenced by nature and religion, earning him [...]

In another move to beef up its retargeting offerings–and take on retargeting platforms like Adroll, Retargeter and Mediaforge–Google is rolling out dynamic retargeting to all AdWords retail customers with Google Merchant Feeds. The company is also piloting dynamic retargeting in the travel and education sectors and plans to expand availability to more sectors later this year. [...]